Helen DeWitt on her writing practice, with reference to collaboration, works-in-progress, multilingual texts, the concealed dynamics of commodification, the machinery of cultural capital and the pioneering work of Edward Tufte. With a selection from her personal library.

Helen Dewitt is a Berlin-based writer. She is the author of The Last Samurai (Talk Miramax/Chatto & Windus, 2000), Lightning Rods (New Directions, 2011/And Other Stories, 2012), and, with Ilya Gridneff, of Your Name Here (in limbo since 2006).